Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Synopsis

In the wake of Spock's ultimate deed of sacrifice, Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise crew return to Earth for some essential repairs to their ship. When they arrive at Spacedock, they are shocked to discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned. Even worse, Dr. McCoy begins acting strangely and Scotty has been reassigned to another ship. Kirk is forced to steal back the Enterprise and head across space to the Genesis Planet to save Spock and bring him to Vulcan. Unknown to them, the Klingons are planning to steal the secrets of the Genesis Device for their own deadly purpose.

In the wake of Spock's ultimate deed of sacrifice, Admiral Kirk and the Enterprise crew return to Earth for some essential repairs to their ship. When they arrive at Spacedock, they are shocked to discover that the Enterprise is to be decommissioned. Even worse, Dr. McCoy begins acting strangely and Scotty has been reassigned to another ship. Kirk is forced to steal back the Enterprise and head across space to the Genesis Planet to save Spock and bring him to Vulcan. Unknown to them, the Klingons are planning to steal the secrets of the Genesis Device for their own deadly purpose.

Cast

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Maddyclassicfilms 8 / 10

Where's the logic in offering me a ride home?

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is directed by Leonard Nimoy and
has music by James Horner. The film stars William Shatner, DeForest
Kelley, Christopher Lloyd, Robin Curtis, James Doohan, Nichelle
Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Merritt Butrick, Mark Lenard,
Judith Anderson and Leonard Nimoy.

This is a very good film and pretty underrated compared to some of the
others. It has several moving scenes and is really funny too. McCoy
trying to charter a ship in an alien bar is hysterical. The mind meld
scene between Kirk and Sarek is very moving and Christopher Lloyd is
excellent as the cunning Klingon Captain. It's a bit odd that Carol
Marcus isn't in this film, you'd think she would have wanted to study
the Genesis planet.

The Search for Spock is set shortly after the events of The Wrath of
Khan. Kirk (William Shatner) and the crew are returning to Earth, Kirk
is devastated by Spock's loss and is struggling to come to terms with
it.

David(Merritt Butrick) and Lt. Saavik(Robin Curtis)have been assigned
to the Starfleet ship Grissom, they are in orbit of the Genesis planet
and are studying how the planet is evolving. That sector is off limits
now to anyone apart from their science team.

When the Enterprise returns to Earth, Kirk is told the ship is to be
decommissioned. Dr. McCoy(DeForest Kelley)appears to be having some
sort of breakdown and Kirk is visited by Spock's father Sarek(Mark
Lenard).

Sarek pleads with Kirk to return Spock's body to Vulcan(at the end of
the previous film he was buried on the Genesis planet), he tells Kirk
there is a ritual that could restore Spock to life. It is discovered
that McCoy is now carrying Spock's memories and personality within his
own mind, that is why Spock melded with him at the end of Wrath of
Khan.

Spock's memories must be taken from McCoy and placed back into Spock's
mind. Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, McCoy and Chekov steal the Enterprise and
head to the Genesis planet.

Rogue Klingon Captain Kruge(Christopher Lloyd)has found out about the
Genesis device and realises the potential it has to be a weapon. He and
his crew head to the Genesis planet.

This film has some very interesting things in it, such as the mystical
Vulcan ceremony that can restore life and the accelerated development
of the Genesis planet. It makes you think also about the positives and
negatives of building a device like Genesis.

Although it's great that Spock lives again, I think this lessens the
impact of his sacrifice at the end of The Wrath of Khan. I think it
would have been better if he stayed dead, and then we could see the
impact on Kirk and McCoy and how they coped with that loss.

Well directed by Nimoy, with strong performances from the cast. Shatner
is good as the devastated Kirk who will stop at nothing if there is
even the slightest chance of saving Spock. Robin Curtis is good as
Saavik, but it is a shame that Kirstie Alley didn't reprise the role.

Doohan, Takei, Nichols and Koenig get more to do in this film and
that's great to see. DeForest Kelley steals every scene he's in as a
very different Dr.McCoy.

Reviewed by Jonathan Fisk 4 / 10

Is it a search if they know where he is the whole time?

It feels a little strange to say, but this film may be worse than the
first Star Trek movie. At least the first film was creative and
slightly intriguing, even if it did not translate to the big screen.
But The Search for Spock contained little mystery, a prolonged and
obvious outcome, and continued the same flawed subplot (and basically
the only negative aspect of) The Wrath of Khan, that being the Genesis
Project. This unlikely Federation project was at least a bit on the
afterburner in the previous film, compared to Khan's quest for
vengeance against Kirk. Now it's the main story as it gives Spock his
rebirth, but this time there is hardly any thought to the moral dilemma
of the project.

There are some positives in this film; I don't think it is a disaster.
It was nice to see the rest of the crew given a little more of the
spotlight, such as Uhura putting the young Federation member in his
place (then she disappearing for basically the rest of the film…) and
Sulu taking out the Federation MP's (his hand-to-hand combat is much
more believable than Kirk's; more on that in a bit). Also, while it is
a little strange to see Christopher Lloyd as a Klingon, he made the
character sinister and interesting.

But my main criticism with Search for Spock is that we always know
Spock will return, and the child version of the character is found
early on. The film could have been so much better if the Spock
regeneration was settled during the first or second act, then we can
move on to a new Star Trek adventure with the crew back together. There
is a sense with this film, especially since it was directed by Leonard
Nimoy himself, that Kirk got his movie with Wrath of Khan, now let's
explore more about Spock's nature throughout this entire film. But it
all just comes across as a lackluster, immediate follow-up to the
previous installment. With Wrath of Khan, it felt like a reboot to the
franchise, not a sequel. But this film exemplified exactly what most of
us don't like about sequels: trying to wrap- up loose ends from the
last film and taking it up a notch from there, but failing.

Final thoughts: Please, no more hand-to-hand combat from Kirk, it
doesn't work anymore. The character plays so much better as a captain
outwitting the enemy, as he does with the destruction of the
Enterprise. And are you serious with that Ponfar scene? I know Kirstie
Alley said she didn't want to be typecast, so she chose not to continue
her role as Saavik, but I have to think that this scene with
post-adolescent Spock had to really push her over the edge. Plus, do we
really think that these characters who are pushing 50 could walk up all
of those steps on Vulcan carrying a comatose Spock? Scotty must have
been freaking out. And what is Bones regular "poison"? Gotta be Romulan
ale.

*My film rating follows the soccer player rating measure of 6 as a
baseline: you did what was expected of you. This film is a 4 because it
fails to intrigue and shows essentially nothing new. It is simply a
sequel trying to continue the excitement of its predecessor, but
utterly failing.

Reviewed by garthbarnes-83945 1 / 10

Flushoooooo Toiletoooo: Crapoooooo!

Spoilers Ahead:

Poor Judith Anderson the first lady of Film Noir. Want to see her
before? Watch THE STRANGE LOVE OF MARTHA IVERS and other great
performances. Young actors, this could happen to you if you do not save
your money. I bet England called and wanted her title back. Do you
blame them? How would you like to be enveloped in smoke bombs,
surrounded by bald people in bathrobes with big triangles on them? Hey,
seriously, I felt really bad for her. A great actress and this is what
people under 40 will remember her for. If you like bald people milling
about doing some kind of hokey pokey smoke bomb ceremony for twenty
minutes; this is the movie for you. Before this, Kirk brought the parts
to Vulcan for reassembly, his Katra or some mumbo jumbo, hey I was
asleep at this point, who gives a crap? I love the rescue of Bones, the
worst shot action scene in film history. The big guy begins his roll
before Sulu throws him, now that is strength, must be his Katra. In the
same scene, the big guy is shown blocking the wall ram with his arm,
Nimoy was not exactly Michael Bay.

If you ran the space station and Kirk, after you turned him down for
using the Enterprise, says I will hire a ship, I'll get a ship! Would
you raise the security around the Enterprise say a wee bit? Yes, you
can just walk right in, he never would have anticipated that, great
writing. See, they call it a space station because they have more than
one ship there. They would not just send Excelsior, maybe like six
other ships? The Genesis planet ages in wonderful consanguinity with
the script, slow until the Enterprise is blown up then it goes like
lightning. I love when humanists do ethics, see axioms have
consequences; the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many whose
axiom was that, let me think, I know; Adolph Hitler. Yes, that was the
rule he lived by, how'd that work out? It is the exact opposite of
Spock's axiom in the WRATH OF KHAN. See, put down the comic books and
think about what words mean when you say them. Why are we living on the
Klingon ship? Why do I know all about Kruge's, cabbage head, little
dogie? Why would I give a poop?

The film has to be seen to be believed; you will see why Kirstie Alley
declined to reprise her role as Saavik, do you blame her? Would you
like to do some kinky, creepy scene with her fingers and Spock: the
disassembled, kiddie years? Talk about making your skin crawl scene,
please we are eating out here. GROSS OUT. The film is surpassed only by
STAR TREK 5: God Wants Out Of The Picture as the absolute nadir of the
original cast movies. The acting is terrible; it is boring, stupid and
as believable as your flying through the air. Some scenes evoked
laughter when I saw this with 500 other people. The kinky finger mating
scene had non stop giggling by the audience all through it. Kirstie,
you made the right decision, you saved yourself eternal humiliation.
Please, get a room; the movie is bad even for Star Trek and that is
saying something.